meetings.
The director-general should have the power, when he has proof that a railroad manager is persistently violating the law, to remove him and to appoint a receiver to take charge of the road until its owners can make provision and furnish sufficient guarantee for a more responsible management. Such a procedure would not be without a.n.a.logy in the sphere of Federal authority. The Comptroller of the Currency is authorized by law to remove the derelict officials of a national bank and place its business in charge of a receiver. The beneficial effect of this provision is evinced in the extreme rareness of such a step. When railroad managers are held responsible for their own official acts, as well as for those of their subordinates, and when all railroad transgressions are visited upon their source in such a manner as to be remembered by the stings of disgrace and of a blighted career, unfaithful railroad managers will be extremely rare.
The plan here outlined is of course capable of being greatly improved.
Experience only is a reliable guide as to the merits of the various details of such a system of control. What is needed above all things is a beginning, the establishment of the principle of complete control of railroad transportation by the State and the Nation. When this step is once taken, the friends of railroad reform may safely trust to time for the solution of the subordinate questions of this important problem.
By thorough State and Federal supervision of the railroad business many of the present abuses can be prevented. But the temptations of railroad managers to violate the law will continue to exist as long as the speculative element is permitted to remain in railroad securities. To remove the fountain-head of the evil eventually, the way should gradually be paved for a change in railroad organization and ownership which would also greatly increase the responsibility and efficiency of railroad management. In the beginning of the railroad era, nearly all, and not unfrequently all the capital needed for the construction of a new line was supposed to be furnished by the company"s stockholders. But as it often happened that the cost of construction considerably exceeded the original estimate, the State authorized railroad companies to mortgage their property for the purpose of raising the money necessary to complete the road. In time this provision of the law was taken advantage of by speculative stockholders to such an extent that roads were often bonded for the full amount necessary to construct them, and even for more, while the stock was issued simply as a bonus to the promoters and the bondholders of the road. But as the bonds and shares scarcely ever remain in the same hands, such a condition was eventually brought about that roads were controlled by those who had little or nothing invested in the enterprise, and their real owners were deprived of all influence in their management, retaining only the right to foreclose their mortgages when things came to the worst. It is evident that men who have only a speculative interest in property cannot have the same concern for its permanent value and prosperity as those who hold it as a permanent investment. Many of the railroad abuses of the past had their origin in the law permitting the bonding of railroad property. Were it desirable to make a property for the sole use and convenience of speculators and gamblers, a better scheme could hardly be devised than the present system of our railroad organizations. Were railroad companies organized like national banks, were each shareholder required to pay the full amount of the face value of his shares, and were mortgaging railroad property entirely prohibited, it is not likely that the proportion of bankrupted railroads would be any larger than that of bankrupted banks. Few, if any, railroads would be built for purely speculative or blackmailing purposes.
Capital is naturally conservative, and speculation is only invited where the chances of gain are greatly out of proportion to the capital invested. Were the principle of ownership which applies to national banks and other well regulated corporations also applied to the railroads, and were bonds entirely abolished, only such persons would by the shareholders be placed in charge of their property as could give to them the best a.s.surance of honest and conservative management. Such a change would greatly increase public confidence in, and the value of, railroad securities, and would eventually place them above bank stock as desirable investments. With the great fluctuations which under present circ.u.mstances obtain in railroad stocks, these securities are regarded as unsafe and unsatisfactory investments by conservative people. During a period of less than twelve months in 1891 and 1892 the stock of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe fluctuated from 28-1/2 to 43-1/2, or 53 per cent.; that of the Chesapeake and Ohio from 15-1/4 to 25-7/8, or 70 per cent.; of the Chicago and Northwestern from 101 to 118, or 17 per cent.; of the Chicago, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha from 20-1/2 to 38-1/2, or 88 per cent.; of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul from 48-3/4 to 78-1/2, or 61 per cent.; of the Iowa Central from 6-1/2 to 13, or 100 per cent.
If we look over the stock quotations of the past ten or twelve years we find still greater fluctuations. The following table, taken from the _United States Investor_, shows the range of prices of a few of the princ.i.p.al stocks during this period:
Name. Lowest. Highest.
Central Pacific 26-1/2 (1888) 102-7/8 (1881) Chesapeake and Ohio 1 (1888) 33-7/8 (1881) Erie 9-1/4 (1885) 52-7/8 (1881) Illinois Central 79-1/4 (1879) 150-1/2 (1882) Lake Erie and Western 1-3/8 (1885) 65-3/4 (1881) Michigan Central 46-1/2 (1885) 130-1/8 (1880) New Jersey Central 31 (1885) 131 (1889) New York Central 81-3/4 (1885) 155-3/8 (1880) Northern Pacific 14 (1884) 54-3/8 (1882) Rock Island 63-3/8 (1891) 204 (1880) C., M. & St. P. 34-3/8 (1879) 129-1/4 (1881) Texas and Pacific 5-1/2 (1884) 73-5/8 (1881) Wabash 2 (1885) 60 (1881) Atchison and Topeka 23-3/4 (1890) 152-1/2 (1880) Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 75-7/8 (1891) 182-1/2 (1881) N. Y. & N. E. 9 (1884) 86 (1881) Wisconsin Central 2 (1880) 39 (1881) Union Pacific 28 (1884) 131 (1881)
And such fluctuations have always been rather the rule than the exception. It is a gross outrage upon the investing public to let this state of affairs continue. It should be corrected without delay.
How many high officials in charge of railroad property will under these circ.u.mstances resist the temptation to speculate in the stock of their companies, and, so long as it is permitted, how many will resist the temptation to adopt such policies in the government of their roads as will cause such fluctuations? It is a common report that it is not an unfrequent occurrence for Senators and members of Congress to receive information from railway officials that enables them to raise their campaign funds by speculation in Wall Street.
Mr. Henry C. Adams, statistician of the Interstate Commerce Commission, says in his third annual report:
"It certainly appears ... that the motive for ownership in railroad stock is quite different from the ordinary motives which lead men to invest in corporate enterprises, thus presenting an additional proof that railways are a business not subject to ordinary business rules."
There is no safer business in the world than railroad transportation; there is none that has less elements of uncertainty; none whose returns in the aggregate are less varying. Every other business in the country, whether prospering or struggling, pays tribute to it. It rests on a cash basis, and suffers probably less from hard times than any business of its magnitude. Both the merchant and the manufacturer run large risks in doing business largely on a credit basis. The farmer sows in the spring, harvests in the fall, and often cannot realize on his products until winter; but the railroad company always receives its pay as soon as its work is done, and not unfrequently even before it is done. Statistics show that railroad revenues are, in the aggregate, remarkably uniform, and there is no reason why railroad securities should be less stable than bank or insurance stocks. Mr. Jeans says:
"It is observable, in respect to the net profits from railway working, that they have not fluctuated from year to year in the same way as nearly all other profits have done.... It comes, then, to this, that, next after land and house property, the railway interest is the largest and most important in the country. But it is superior to both of these rival interests in its profit-earning capabilities, yielding, as it does, more than 4 per cent. on the capital expended, against a possible average of 2-1/2 to 3 per cent.
in respect to the others."
There may be some arguments in favor of bonding railroads, but this practice is, upon the whole, productive of infinitely more evil than good. The State should, therefore, compel railroad companies to liquidate all of their bonded indebtedness without unnecessary delay. In the proportion in which this is accomplished railroad shares will gain in stability and value.
Railroad men complain that the small savings of the poor invested in railroad securities do not yield adequate returns and are often lost in consequence of the foreclosing of the roads in which these investments have been made. Others complain that railroads are bankrupted in the interest of designing bondholders. Still others charge that rich and powerful roads contrive to obtain a controlling interest in the depreciated stock of weaker roads and then manage these roads in their own interest and greatly to the detriment of other stockholders. All these evils would disappear if the law required the ident.i.ty of actual and virtual ownership. "Freezing-out" processes could no longer be resorted to by expert directors to obtain without compensation the property of their less sophisticated fellow stockholders. One railroad could no longer obtain control of another by acquiring an insignificant part of the sum total of its securities. There would be no longer any clashing between the interests of bondholders and stockholders, and railroads would no longer be managed in the interest of a small minority of their owners.
In addition to the cancellation of all railroad mortgages the State should require that all railroad stocks should, in the future, be paid in full. Furthermore, roads should be built only from the proceeds of the capital stock, and the expense of repairs should be defrayed from the revenues of the road. Dividends should only be paid from surplus earnings and should in no case exceed a fair rate of interest on the actual present value of the road. The statistician to the Interstate Commerce Commission suggests the creation of a special commission charged with the duty of converting the actual capitalization of railroad lines into a just value of their property. To do justice to both the railroads and their patrons in the fixing of rates, it is important that the just value of railroad property be ascertained, but the work could probably be done with less friction by a cooperation of National and State commissions. A number of reforms are needed within the province of railroad management. Pa.s.senger rates are, as a rule, too high, and out of all proportion to freight rates. Many pa.s.senger tariffs still recognize the old stage-coach principle of fixing the fare in an exact proportion to the distance traveled. Thus a pa.s.senger who takes the train for a five-mile trip pays only fifteen cents for his own transportation and that of one hundred pounds of baggage, while the pa.s.senger who buys a ticket for a journey of one hundred miles pays, on most American lines, exactly twenty times the amount paid by the five-mile pa.s.senger. Here the principle of collecting terminal charges is entirely ignored. Sufficient inducements are not held out to the pa.s.senger to prolong his journey, and as a consequence of this short-sighted policy of the railroad companies the average distance traveled in the United States by each pa.s.senger, instead of having gradually increased, has gradually decreased of late years until it is now only 24.18 miles. The average freight haul in the United States is 120 miles, or about five times as long as the average journey per pa.s.senger. How can such a difference be accounted for except by the dissimilarity in the principles which govern the computation of pa.s.senger and freight charges? The same rule should be adopted in fixing pa.s.senger rates that is recognized by railroad men in fixing freight rates: the rate per mile should decrease with the increase of the number of miles traveled.
The principle of arranging pa.s.senger tariffs on a sliding scale has found recognition in Europe. In Denmark first-cla.s.s pa.s.senger fare is 3.13 cents for each of the first 47 miles, 2.67 cents for each of the next 47 miles, and only 2.22 cents for every additional mile. The practical application of this principle is, in fact, only limited by the extent of the kingdom. In nearly all European countries a uniform reduction, ranging from 20 to 30 per cent., is made from regular rates for return trip tickets, and coupon tickets are issued to tourists almost everywhere at largely reduced rates.
Hungary recently adopted a new method of making pa.s.senger and freight tariffs for its state lines. This is now generally called the zone system. There are two cla.s.ses of tickets sold, one for short trips on suburban or branch lines, the other for longer journeys on the main lines. The distances that can be traveled on short or suburban lines are divided into two zones of stations, and those on main lines into fourteen zones. The division of the kingdom into zones is made with Buda-Pesth as the center. A ticket purchased for a particular zone carries the pa.s.senger to the end of that zone or any nearer station.
The following table will show the extent of each zone and the fares paid:
--------------+---------------+--------------------+-------------------- | | LOCAL TRAINS. | FAST TRAINS.
ZONE | DISTANCE |------+------+------+------+------+------ | |First |Second|Third |First |Second|Third | |Cla.s.s.|Cla.s.s.|Cla.s.s.|Cla.s.s.|Cla.s.s.|Cla.s.s.
--------------+---------------+------+------+------+------+------+------ Short Lines.| | Fl. | Fl. | Fl. | Fl. | Fl. | Fl.
|First Station. | 0.30 | 0.15 | .10 | - | - | - |Second Station.| .40 | .22 | .15 | - | - | - Main Lines. | | | | | | | 1 | 1-25 km. | .50 | .40 | .25 | 0.60 | 0.50 | 0.30 2 | 26-40 " | 1.00 | .80 | .50 | 1.20 | 1.00 | .60 3 | 41-55 " | 1.50 | 1.20 | .75 | 1.80 | 1.50 | .90 4 | 56-70 " | 2.00 | 1.60 | 1.00 | 2.40 | 2.00 | 1.20 5 | 71-85 " | 2.50 | 2.00 | 1.25 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 1.50 6 | 86-100 " | 3.00 | 2.40 | 1.50 | 3.60 | 3.00 | 1.80 7 | 101-115 " | 3.50 | 2.80 | 1.75 | 4.20 | 3.50 | 2.10 8 | 116-130 " | 4.00 | 3.20 | 2.00 | 4.80 | 4.00 | 2.40 9 | 131-145 " | 4.50 | 3.60 | 2.25 | 5.40 | 4.50 | 2.70 10 | 146-160 " | 5.00 | 4.00 | 2.50 | 6.00 | 5.00 | 3.00 11 | 161-175 " | 5.50 | 4.40 | 2.75 | 6.60 | 5.50 | 3.30 12 | 176-200 " | 6.00 | 4.80 | 3.00 | 7.20 | 6.00 | 3.60 13 | 201-225 " | 7.00 | 5.30 | 3.50 | 8.40 | 6.50 | 4.20 14 | 225 km. | | | | | | | and over | 8.00 | 5.80 | 4.00 | 9.60 | 7.00 | 4.80
(The florin is a little more than one-third of a dollar.)
A ride from a city to the first suburban station costs from 3 to 10 cents, according to cla.s.s of car, and to the second station 5 to 13.6 cents. On through trains a person may travel 15 miles at a cost of from 8-1/2 to 20 cents, according to kind of train and cla.s.s of car, a hundred miles for from 85 cents to $2.00; 140 miles for from $1.15 to $2.80 and any distance above 140 miles for from $1.35 to $3.25. A person may thus travel from Buda-Pesth to Predeal, a distance of 472 miles, with a third-cla.s.s ticket for zone 14, purchased at a cost of $1.35, or 28-100 of a cent per mile.
Our railroad men with much complacency point to the fact that these rates do not cover the forwarding of pa.s.sengers" baggage and that this service must be paid for separately. These charges, however, are very moderate, being on 120 pounds of baggage 8-1/3 cents a distance of 34 miles or less, about 17 cents for a distance of more than 34 and less than 62 miles, and about 34 cents for any distance over 62 miles. The additional charge for carrying 120 pounds of baggage from Buda-Pesth to Predeal is therefore about one-fourteenth of one cent per mile. It must be admitted that this system of charging separately for pa.s.senger and baggage is eminently just, for there is no good reason why the pa.s.senger without baggage should be taxed to pay for the carriage of that of his fellow-traveler.
The zone tariff was introduced on the state railways of Hungary by M.
Barosz, the Hungarian Minister of Commerce, on the 1st of August, 1889.
The adoption of the new tariff was ridiculed and condemned as visionary by road experts, who even went so far as to prove to the satisfaction of practical railroad men that the innovation was destined to be a failure.
For a month or two it almost seemed as if their prediction might be fulfilled, the number of pa.s.sengers carried remaining behind the number carried during the corresponding period of previous years. But soon the reaction set in. The month of November, 1889, already witnessed an increase in the number of pa.s.sengers as well as in receipts over the same month of the year previous. The result of the first year"s trial demonstrated the wisdom of the "innovation." The number of pa.s.sengers carried, which had been only 5,186,227 in 1888-89, rose to 13,060,751 in 1889-90, and the total receipts for pa.s.sengers and baggage rose from 9,138,715 florins to 11,186,321 florins, a gain of 2,047,606 florins, or 22 per cent., during the first year. There is a continued increase both in the number of pa.s.sengers and in receipts, and the success of the system must be p.r.o.nounced phenomenal. The railroad experts of Europe, who had predicted the signal failure of the zone system, now that the unexpected has happened, are trying to discover the particular favorable conditions which made the success of the system possible in Hungary. It will probably be a decade, or even two, before the railroad experts of both hemispheres will be entirely reconciled to this new application of the old principle that a reduction in the price of a commodity increases the demand for it.
It is strange, indeed, that intelligent men should be so slow in recognizing an economic principle for which both history and daily experience furnish an unlimited number of ill.u.s.trations. The post-office receipts everywhere have increased with a reduction in postage. The Government telegraph in England did not become self-supporting until Parliament made a sweeping reduction in its rates. The revenue from the Brooklyn bridge never paid a fair interest on the capital expended in its construction until its tolls were cut down. Were it necessary, hundreds of other examples could be added to these.
Hungary has also applied the zone system to its freight traffic. Three zones are fixed for the carrying of goods, viz.: Zone I, for distances less than 200 kilometers (124 miles); Zone II, for distances over 200 and less than 400 kilometers, and Zone III, for distances over 400 kilometers. A uniform tariff is established for each zone, which is one-third less than the average freight rates for equal distances formerly in force. American railroads should profit by the wisdom and experience of the Hungarian Government, and adopt at an early day such features of its system as upon our soil and under our inst.i.tutions may be made practicable. The Hungarian system, with some modifications, is now being tried by Austria and a few of the German states, and is increasing railroad revenues wherever adopted.
There is a growing demand for lower fares. This demand increases in the same proportion in which the desire and the necessity for travel increase. European states have not been slow to meet it. Reductions are made everywhere, and chiefly favor the lower cla.s.ses. Thus, when France, within the last year, changed her pa.s.senger tariff, she reduced first-cla.s.s fare 9 per cent., second-cla.s.s fare 18 per cent., and third-cla.s.s 27 per cent.
The European pa.s.senger reports show the numbers of first and second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers are continually falling off, while those of the third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers are fast increasing. In England and Wales the number of first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers fell between 1875 and 1889 from 37,000,000 to 24,000,000 while the number of third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers increased during that same period from 350,000,000 to 601,000,000, and this increase still continues. In the United Kingdom the number of third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers for 1891 was over 750,000,000. Furthermore, pa.s.senger revenue comes chiefly from the third cla.s.s. In the United Kingdom the receipts from first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers were in 1889 3,188,000; from second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, 2,705,000; and from third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, 19,785,000. It is thus seen that receipts from third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers are nearly 3-1/2 times as large as those from the first and second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers combined. A similar proportion is found in nearly every country on the continent. European roads discovered some years ago that first and second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers were carried at a loss, and all the pa.s.senger earnings were derived from third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers. The profits from this source show a considerable increase every year.
The average fare per mile is 2.15 cents in the United States, and only 1.17 cents in Germany, 1.67 cents in Austria, 1.18 cents in Belgium, 1.29 cents in Denmark, 1.45 cents in France, 1.64 cents in Italy, and 1.45 cents in Russia. It is often claimed by railroad men that we travel more luxuriously than the people of any other country in the world, but it should not be forgotten that traveling in the United States is also more expensive than anywhere else. It is contended that cla.s.s distinctions are odious in America, and that second and third-cla.s.s cars would not be patronized. The same argument might be applied to theaters, hotels, clothiers, grocers, etc. It is difficult to see why distinction here should be less odious than on the railroad train. The truth is, Americans are just like other people and will avail themselves of accommodations in keeping with their means if they have the opportunity.
Many pa.s.sengers who will not travel in an uncouth smoking-car would, if clean second-cla.s.s cars were provided, gladly dispense with the luxury of an upholstered seat if by doing so they could save from $5 to $10 a day.
A common laborer in this country earns from a dollar to a dollar and a half a day, and in the performance of his labor as a rule suffers greater inconvenience than does the traveler who travels the country in a second-cla.s.s car. Is it under these circ.u.mstances at all likely that the American would hesitate to travel for a day in a plain but clean car, if by doing so he could save a week"s earnings? We may even go further and say that it is a very reasonable a.s.sumption that the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow would choose the cheaper car if the difference in one day"s fare were equal to one day"s wages. It is a common saying in Europe that the first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers consist of lords and fools, and few of the hundreds of thousands of American tourists traveling abroad give the natives occasion to cla.s.s them with either.
The first-cla.s.s car has almost fallen into disuse in Europe, and even the patronage of the second-cla.s.s is less than ten per cent, of that of the third.
Reduced rates for return tickets should be provided under rules and regulations of commissioners.
The Ma.s.sachusetts legislature recently pa.s.sed a law requiring the railways of that State to sell interchangeable thousand-mile tickets for $20. The State commission is given power to except any company from its requirements if the public welfare or the financial condition require or demand it. This is a step in the right direction and should be followed by other States. Michigan also requires certain roads to carry first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers at two cents per mile.
Railroad companies should be compelled to discard the pa.s.s as a courtesy as well as a consideration. The giving of pa.s.ses under the guise of mileage books, or tickets for pretended or unnecessary services, is very pernicious and should be prohibited. Such a reform would soon enable them to offer low fares to all. An employe may be furnished free transportation while actually engaged in the business of his company, and it should be made the duty of the State and National commissions to make proper regulations governing such free transportation of employes. Half-fare tickets for adults should also be abolished. The pauper ticket is given to the minister of the gospel to secure for the railroads the influence of the pulpit, though offered under the pretense of charity or support of the church. The State should not permit the railroad companies to practice this or any other kind of charity at the expense of the general public. The railroad is a highway, and the company operating it is ent.i.tled to rates sufficient to pay operating expenses and a fair interest on the value of the property. It can therefore easily be seen that the so-called gifts show no liberality on the part of the railroad company, but are made at the expense of other people. Donations made by railroad companies should be made from the pockets of their stockholders and not from the pockets of their patrons.
All perquisites of railroad officers should be abolished. When a railway official has become so pompous and consequential that he requires a special car, it is about time to look about for his successor. If we are to have a special-car aristocracy in this country let it be supported at the expense of some other interest.
Another railroad reform is needed on this side of the Atlantic. While the great majority of railroad officials are courteous and considerate, and perform their duties in the most agreeable and acceptable manner, there are a few who do not properly appreciate the relation which they sustain to the patrons of their companies. They are inclined to forget that they are quasi-public servants, and that the public has a right to demand courteous treatment at their hands. All railroad employes should realize that their first duty is to administer to the welfare and the convenience of the public, and each one should have the full protection of the law in his efforts to do so. The American public objects much less to an inferior car than to rude treatment by the companies" agents.
Railroad superintendents may justly be blamed for the incivilities of their subordinates. It is their duty to know the character of those whom they employ, and not to retain in their employ those who are derelict in their duty to the public. Nothing offends the feelings of a true American more than the display of a bureaucratic spirit on the part of public servants. Nothing more commends a line of railroad to the public than uniform painstaking kindness and courteous treatment on the part of its employes. It is made the duty of railroad employes of France "to so treat the public as if they were eager to oblige it," and the very first paragraph of the official instructions to the railroad employes of Germany enjoins them "to a.s.sume a modest and polite demeanor in their intercourse with the public." In this connection it might be stated that the second paragraph of those instructions positively forbids the acceptance of any gratuity by a railroad employe. If our American sleeping and dining-car companies would give their employes adequate compensation and then adopt and enforce the German rule concerning "tipping," their service would gain popularity and their employes self-respect.
Entrance into the railway service should be by agreement for a definite time, and dismissals and resignations should be governed by rules agreed upon by boards of commissioners and the companies.
The use of the corporation has done so much to secure for capital so large a share of the profits of industrial enterprises, and large salaries also for the officers who manage them, that laborers have been led to organize themselves into a.s.sociations for like purposes, and ambitious men have not been slow in availing themselves of the advantages afforded them in this new field.
It is right and proper for laborers to organize such a.s.sociations when they can do so under wise and economical management, for the purpose of securing greater intelligence, better education, higher culture, higher wages, a shorter work-day, and a general ameliorating of their condition, all of which will tend to make them more efficient workmen and also better enable them to resist the aggression of centralized wealth; for, in the absence of organization, the single-handed employe of the great modern employer is comparatively helpless. But if these organizations are allowed to be controlled by ignorant, unreasonable or designing men, who will, at trifling provocations, resort to violent and unlawful measures, they are sure to prove harmful, and a great detriment, instead of a help, to their members, and the sooner they are abandoned the better for all.
Great conflicts are sure to arise between organized capital and organized labor, and they must be settled in a reasonable way, or anarchy will prevail. They cannot be left for headstrong or inconsiderate men representing either side to determine, but the line must be drawn by the public authorities.
Each year affords acc.u.mulated evidence of the necessity of extending legal restrictions over the management of the railway business, and the law, as laid down by Judge Ricks to the Ann Arbor strikers last March, in the United States Circuit Court, at Toledo, is undoubtedly correct and will meet with general approval from the public.
He says:
"You are engaged in a service of a public character, and the public are interested not only in the way in which you perform your duties while you continue in that service, but are quite as much interested in the time and circ.u.mstances under which you quit that employment. You cannot always choose your own time and place for terminating these relations. If you are permitted to do so you might quit your work at a time and place and under circ.u.mstances which would involve irreparable damage to your employers and jeopardize the lives of the traveling public."
Mr. Powderly, in commenting upon the above decision, does not complain of it, but says:
"The decision shows, as I have said before, that the principle of Government ownership of the railroads is being recognized by the courts. While the decision is apparently against the men, it emphasizes our position that the Government has the right to supervise the railroads. Now it is a poor rule that won"t work both ways.